All the World's a Staged Event

Numerous right-wing bloggers and supporters of Israel's war have been extremely busy the past week or so insisting that photos from Lebanon have been staged for maximum effect ie. to turn public opinion against the Israeli government's actions, despite the fact that if photos of the bombings didn't even exist, those of us who believe Israel's actions have indeed been disproportionate and that the infliction of collective punishment while interfering with humanitarian assistance violates international laws. We don't need pictures to confirm that.

Israel's supporters tried ad nauseaum to prove that the Qana massacre was either staged by Hezbollah to damage Israel's credibility or that news agency photographers were not showing true photos of the deaths of the innocents (caution: disturbing images in the last link). I'm surprised they didn't go one step further and accuse the children of being little Hezbollah terrorists who had been manning the rocket launchers nearby (which even the IDF admitted weren't anywhere near the bombed building that day of the massacre).

Yes, some bloggers are quite content to just examine photos and declare they're staged because that is the only way they can deny the reality of the death and destruction caused by the IDF. Just look at this recent discussion about photos showing a hand exposed in the rubble. You'll notice there isn't one word of grief for the person attached to that hand who was so brutally killed. No. Instead the picture becomes part of some warped blogger version of CSI: Bloggerville. (And, it's quite obvious that particular blogger doesn't know the difference between rebar and a stick, but that's beside the point).

No. It's 'staged'. It's all 'staged' except, of course, for the photos showing Israeli casualties. Those are all real. They must be! It's not like those librul photographers would stage those ones.
/snark

If they really want to examine some staged photos, how about these?







If it's the actual staging of photos for perceived political impact that so disturbs these right-wing bloggers, you'd think the poseur Bush would be the number one target of such outrage. But, of course, it's not the possible staging of the dead Lebanese civilians that's the issue at all. It's the fact that there are photos of the atrocities for all the world to see. And, if you're an apologist for Israel's actions, that reality is simply unacceptable so the technical details become the focus because the fact that they're of people killed by Israel's rockets is just too uncomfortable to deal with.

Note: Reuters has fired a freelance photographer who was found to have doctored two photos: one of smoke rising above Beirut and the other of missiles dropping from a plane. The news agency ahs also removed that freelancer's 920 from its database. However, it's important to note that Reuters vouches for the fact that all of its Qana photos are authentic, mush to the dismay of CSI: Bloggerville.

In addition, AP and AFP have also said these bloggers' claims are false. So, while CSI: Bloggerville is still busy examining pixels, people continue to die. But don't tell them that. That would be a distraction from their mission to expose their so-called 'truth' and their collective heads might explode if they actually had to face reality.